The EU Competition Commission might block part of
Lufthansa's acquisition of the assets of now-defunct Airberlin, according to
Reuters.
The news agency reported Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr had a
meeting set Wednesday with EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, to
discuss antitrust concerns related to the
acquisition, which includes Airberlin's leisure airline Niki and 20 additional
aircraft. Reuters cited an unnamed source saying that the commission is
"leaning toward blocking the takeover of Niki," though the commission
reported the investigation is ongoing.
Lufthansa also is facing investigation by Germany's Federal
Cartel Office regarding a sharp increase in German domestic airfares following
Airberlin's termination of service, according to German national newspaper Die
Welt. Lufthansa said those increases were only during certain peak travel times
and that prices would stabilize after it gets antitrust approval and gets the
Airberlin fleet back in service.
In the meantime, Lufthansa announced it was adding more than
700,000 seats on routes within Germany for the winter season to make up for
"the greatly increased and continuously high demand after the market exit
of Airberlin," according to the carrier. The plan includes using a Boeing
747-400 jumbo jet to fly between Frankfurt and Berlin in November and December.
It also includes increasing connections to both Berlin and Dusseldorf by Lufthansa
from Frankfurt, by Austrian Airlines from Vienna and by Swiss from Zurich. The
increases will reestablish 45 percent of the capacity lost by Airberlin,
according to Lufthansa.
Additionally, Lufthansa announced plans to
significantly grow the long-haul network of its low-cost carrier Eurowings,
including a New York-to-Dusseldorf flight in April and service from both Miami
and Fort Myers, Fla., to Dusseldorf in May.